Research Guides: HIST 299: Historical Methods: Finding Primary Sources

Selected Primary Source Databases

Alexander Street Collection
Covers African American history, women's history, social & cultural history, sociology, psychology & counseling, religion, music, drama & theatre, film, performing arts. Sources include texts, images, music & audio tracks, films & documentaries, theatre productions, and playlists. Searches ALL Alexander Street databases.
History Vault
Primary sources and documents on 19th and 20th-century American history. Sources include digitized letters, papers, photographs, scrapbooks, financial records, diaries, and more.

Internet Archive
Open and permanent access to historical collections in digital format for researchers and the public.
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“Books in this collection may be borrowed by logged in patrons for a period of two weeks. You may read the books online in your browser, or download them into Adobe Digital Editions, a free piece of software used for managing loans.”

Find Historical Newspapers

Historical Newspapers
Full-text content from U.S. & international newspapers from the 19th century to the late 20th century. In addition to news stories, includes editorials, cartoons, classifieds, and obituaries.
See title list of over 400 historical newspapers.

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
Digitized American newspapers, 1789 - 1963. From the Library of Congress.

Kalamazoo Gazette Collection (1837-1922, 2005-Present)
Search the local Kalamazoo newspaper.
Kalamazoo Gazette from 2005 through today, including full text, web-only content, and full-color image edition. Also includes historical content from 1837-1922.

HeinOnline
Law journals and periodicals, case law decisions, government documents, Federal Register, US Code, Congressional documents, Foreign Relations of the US, international treaties and world constitutions, and more.
ProQuest Congressional
Legislative and executive publications, including the Congressional Record, Congressional Hearings, and more.
Detailed Guide to this resource.

Central Intelligence Agency Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room
CIA website containing thousands of redacted documents released by the agency through FOIA requests. Documents were created between 1940 to present.

Historical Magazines

Readers' Guide Retrospective (1890-1982)
Index to popular periodicals published in the U.S. and Canada. Includes Time, Newsweek, US & World News Report, National Geographic, The Atlantic, Harpers, The New Yorker, and many more.
American Periodicals (1740-1940)
American magazines, newspapers, and journals in digitized page image format, published between 1740 and 1940.
Accessible Archives
Primary sources from 18th & 19th century American newspapers, magazines, and books. Includes eyewitness accounts of historical events, descriptions of daily life, editorial observations, advertisements, and genealogical records.

Historical Magazine Collection

Located on the 2nd Floor of the Library in the collapsible shelving. See magazines in their original form--great for browsing! Over 70 specially marked titles!

Life
American general interest magazine known for its photography and social commentary.
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2nd Floor: 1957-1972, 1984-2000
Basement: 1936-1956
Online: 1936-1972, 1996-2000
Ms.
American liberal feminist magazine, the first of its kind in the U.S.
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2nd Floor: 1973-2010
No online availability.
Punch
British magazine publishing satirical articles accompanied by topical cartoons that captured life in Britain during the 19th and 20th centuries.
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2nd Floor: 1980-1992
Online: 1841-1992

Specialty Collections

LGBT Magazine Archive (1950-2015)
Archival runs of 26 of the most influential serial publications covering LGBT interests. 1954-2015
Includes The Advocate and Gay Times. Chronicles more than six decades of the history and culture of the LGBT community.
Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive (1880 - 2000)
US and UK trade magazines covering the film and entertainment industries, from the era of vaudeville and silent movies through to 2000.
Detailed Guide to this resource.
Women's Magazine Archive
Complete archives of consumer magazines published for a female audience, including Good Housekeeping and Ladies Home Journal. These magazines cover family life, home economics, health, careers, fashion, and culture, and provide canonical records of evolving assumptions about gender roles and cultural mores. Publications are in high-resolution color.
Men’s Magazine Archive (1845 - 2015)
Men’s-interest magazines for research in men’s studies/history; also provides additional perspectives for women’s studies.
It includes some of the earliest publications of this type – National Police Gazette and Argosy – and covers key topics such as fashion, sports, health, and arts/entertainment.

Single Titles

Harper's Bazaar Archive (1867 - current)
America's first fashion magazine. Complete run of US edition; UK edition covers 1929-2015.
Detailed Guide to this resource.
National Geographic Magazine Archive (1888-1984)
Archives of the monthly American magazine primarily concerning science, geography, history, and world culture.
Vogue Archive (1892 - current)
Digital Archive of the US edition of Vogue Magazine, from the first issue in 1892 to the current month.
Searchable archive of American Vogue, from the first issue in 1892 to the current month, reproduced in high-resolution color page images. Pages, advertisements, covers and fold-outs have been included, with rich indexing enabling researchers to find images by garment type, designer and brand names. The Vogue Archive preserves the work of the world's greatest fashion designers, stylists and photographers and is a unique record of American and international fashion, culture and society from the dawn of the modern era to the present day.

Life Magazine via Google
Magazine know for excellent photography. Digitized issues back to 1935

Diaries & Letters

Manuscript Women's Letters and Diaries
Collection of letters, diaries, and personal writings of American women of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, displayed as high-quality images of the original manuscripts. Materials are from the American Antiquarian Society.
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories
Provides the immigrant experience in the United States and Canada between 1800 and 1950. Collection of personal narratives, letters, diaries, pamphlets, autobiographies, oral histories, Ellis Island Oral History interviews, and political cartoons.

African American

Black Abolitionist Papers (1830-1865)
Primary sources, including writings and publications, of African American activists involved in the movement to end slavery in the United States between 1830 and 1865
Detailed Guide to this resource.
African American Historical Newspapers (1893 - 2003)
African American published newspapers from the late 19th century through the 21st century. Click "more" to see titles and dates.
Afro-American, Baltimore; Apr 29, 1893 - Feb 06, 1988, some exceptions
Atlanta World; Dec 2, 1931 - Mar 17, 1932
Atlanta Daily World; Mar 18, 1932 - Dec 25, 2003, some exceptions
Cleveland Call and Post, Cleveland; Jan 6, 1934 - May 12, 1962
Call and Post, City edition, Cleveland ; May 19, 1962 - Jul 31, 1982
Call and Post, Cleveland; Aug 7, 1982 - Dec 26, 1991
The Chicago Defender (National edition); Apr 2, 1921 - Dec 23, 1967
The Chicago Defender (Big Weekend Edition); Jul 31, 1909 - Mar 26, 1921
Daily Defender, (Daily Edition), Chicago; Feb 6, 1956 - Nov 7, 1960
Chicago Daily Defender (Daily Edition); Nov 8, 1960 - Feb 15, 1973
Chicago Daily Defender (Big Weekend Edition); Jan 6, 1968 - Feb 17, 1973
Chicago Defender (Daily Edition); Feb 19, 1973 - Dec 31, 1975
Chicago Defender (Big Weekend Edition); Feb 24, 1973 - Dec 27, 1975
New Journal and Guide, Norfolk, VA.; Sep 30, 1916 - Dec 30, 2003, some exceptions
The New York Amsterdam News, New York, N.Y.; Nov 29, 1922 - Aug 27, 1938, some exceptions
New York Amsterdam News, City edition, New York, N.Y.; Sep 3, 1938 - Jan 4, 1941
New York Star & Amsterdam News, New York, N.Y.; Jan 11, 1941 - Feb 1, 1941
New York Amsterdam Star-News, New York, N.Y.; Feb 8, 1941 - Mar 27, 1943
New York Amsterdam News, City edition, New York, N.Y.; Apr 3, 1943 - Dec 30, 1961
New York Amsterdam News, New York, N.Y.; Jan 6, 1962 - Dec 25, 1993
Philadelphia Tribune; Jan 6, 1912 - Dec 30, 2001, some exceptions
Courier, City Edition, Pittsburgh; Aug 19, 1950 - Dec 25, 1954
Pittsburgh Courier, City Edition; Jan 1, 1955 - Oct 29, 1966
New Pittsburgh Courier, City Edition; Nov 5, 1966 - Jun 27, 1981
New Pittsburgh Courier; Jul 4, 1981 - Dec 28, 2002

African American Perspectives: from the Library of Congress Rare Book Collection
Sources on African American history and culture from the early nineteenth through the early twentieth centuries; most materials were published between 1875 and 1900. From the Library of Congress.

Disability

Disability in the Modern World
Interdisciplinary focus on disability scholarship, including primary sources, supporting materials, video, and archives. Mass media and activism are covered.

Women

Gerritsen Women's History Collection
Books, periodicals, and pamphlets on women's history and the evolution of feminism. Covers four centuries and 15 languages, with publications from the U.S., U.K., Canada, New Zealand, and continental Europe.
Two collections in this database:
The Periodical Series: This segment represents about 25 percent of the material in the database. It comprises 265 titles, including The Suffragist (1913-21) and The Women's Protest Against Woman Suffrage (1912-18).
Monograph Language Series: These 4,471 monographs and pamphlets make up about 75 percent of the collection. Included are 2,336 titles tracing suffragism in the English-speaking world. The collection will soon include 929 German titles that document the history of organized movements in Germany and Switzerland, and 734 French titles that cover women's issues from Gallic times through World War II.
Women and Social Movements, International
Conference proceedings, organization reports, publications, and websites of women's non-governmental organizations. Also includes letters, diaries, and memoirs of women active internationally since the mid-nineteenth century, as well as photographs and videos of major events and activists in the history of women’s international social movements.
Detailed Guide to this resource.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online
Includes 19th Century primary sources collections covering Europe and Africa, Mapping the World, Photography, and Women.
Europe and Africa: Commerce, Christianity, Civilization, and Conquest
Monographs, manuscripts, and newspapers covering key issues of economics, world politics, and international strategy.

Mapping the World: Maps and Travel Literature
Selections from map repositories of the British Library and the National Archives at Kew representing the nineteenth century.

Photography: The World Through the Lens
Collections of photographs, photograph albums, photographically-illustrated books and texts on the early history of photography from libraries and archives from across the globe. Some images are well-known while many have rarely been viewed.

Women: Transnational Networks
Focuses on issues at the intersection of gender and class from the late 18th century to the era of suffrage in the early 20th century, through a transnational perspective. The collection contains sources on European and North American movements and collections from other regions.

Food

Food Studies Online
Primary sources and secondary works covering food and food systems. Archival materials include pamphlets, ephemera, images, and documentaries.

Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850-1920
Thousands of advertising items and publications dating from 1850 to 1920, illustrating the rise of consumer culture and the birth of a professionalized advertising industry in the United States. From Duke University.

Library

HIST 299: Historical Methods

Even More Primary Source Recommendations!

Selected Primary Source Databases

Find Historical Newspapers

Historical Magazines

Historical Magazine Collection

Specialty Collections

Single Titles

Diaries & Letters

African American

Disability

Women

Food

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Use the Database Types drop-down menu to limit your search.